Sunday, May 31, 2015

First established in 1991, the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) administered by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has morphed into a totalitarian's fantasy of child sexualization enabled by public schools across America.

“Adolescence is an inherently risky time. They are stretching their wings.”-- Dr. Stephanie Zaza, director of the CDC division of adolescent and school health

Parents say they're "shocked" by the kinds of questions on a Youth Risk Behavior Survey distributed by the (Massachusetts) Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and they are supporting a bill to make sure schools have parents' written permission before kids take them.

During the Education Committee hearing, one lawmaker compared the questions to what he saw under communism.

"This is what they give at the communist country I just came from," said Rep. Rady Mom, a Democrat from Lowell (Massachusetts).

. . . YRBSS continues to evolve to meet the needs of CDC and other data users through the ongoing revision of the questionnaire, the addition of new populations, and the development of innovative methods for data collection.

High school and middle school staff laid out plans for responding to the results of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by Emerson Hospital at the Littleton School Committee’s May 14 meeting.

Every other year, Emerson Hospital partners with Littleton and surrounding school districts to conduct the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Sixth-graders, eighth-graders, and high school students provide feedback on various activities, such as alcohol and drug use, stress, sleep and eating patterns, sexual behavior, and other risk behaviors.

Recently, the results of the 2014 survey were delivered to the Littleton School Committee.

The main reason the surveys are given is to create misleading “statistics” that are used by radical groups from Planned Parenthood to LGBT groups, which use the data to persuade politicians to give more taxpayer money to their organizations – and let them into schools to help solve the “huge” problems that the surveys reveal, according to Mass Resistance, which has filed a bill in the Massachusetts Legislature requiring written permission from a parent and requiring schools to show the surveys to parents before subjecting students to them.

“It is a very emotional appeal, and millions of dollars are budgeted on the basis of these very questionable surveys,” the group says on its website.

Welcome to “Spring Fever” week in primary schools across the Netherlands, the week of focused sex ed classes… for 4-year olds.

Of course, it’s not just for 4-year-olds. Eight-year-olds learn about self-image and gender stereotypes. 11-year-olds discuss sexual orientation and contraceptive options. But in the Netherlands, the approach, known as “comprehensive sex education,” starts as early as age 4.

Lessons like this are designed to get kids thinking and talking about the kind of intimacy that feels good and the kind that doesn’t. Other early lessons focus on body awareness. For example, students draw boys’ and girls’ bodies, tell stories about friends taking a bath together, and discuss who likes doing that and who doesn’t. By age seven, students are expected to be able to properly name body parts including genitals. They also learn about different types of families, what it means to be a good friend, and that a baby grows in a mother’s womb.

By law, all primary school students in the Netherlands must receive some form of sexuality education. The system allows for flexibility in how it’s taught. But it must address certain core principles — among them, sexual diversity and sexual assertiveness. That means encouraging respect for all sexual preferences . . .

A 2008 United Nations report found that comprehensive sex ed, when taught effectively, allows young people to “explore their attitudes and values, and to practice the decision-making and other life skills they will need to be able to make informed choices about their sexual lives.” . . .

In [America], the tide is shifting toward an approach closer to that of the Dutch. Two of the largest school districts in the country — Chicago Public Schools and Florida’s Broward County — have recently mandated sex education for elementary school students. Chicago Public Schools requires at least 300 minutes a year of sex education for kindergarten through fourth grade students and twice as much time for fifth through twelfth graders. In the fall of 2015, schools in Broward County will teach sex education at least once a year in every grade, and the curriculum will include information about topics like body image, sexting and social media.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Even as medical science proves fetal viability ever earlier in gestation, federal appeals courts continue to strike down state laws protecting unborn viable human beings from abortionists. Now, with Congress passing a ban on abortions after 20 weeks gestation, the Supreme Court will soon have no choice but to consider when life begins.

“It is high time for this court to revisit the issue” of abortion, Mississippi Atty. Gen. Jim Hood told the Supreme Court justices in a brief filed in early May.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Idaho's law violates Supreme Court precedent protecting abortions up to the point of viability for a fetus, which has been considered to be around 24 weeks.

Courts have struck down such bans before. In 2013, the 9th Circuit also ruled an Arizona ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy to be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to that decision.

Ten states currently have 20-week abortion bans, according to the pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute. [Those states being Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, North Dakota, Texas and West Virginia].

There has been rising support for 20-week bans among Republicans. . . .

Idaho's Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is "facially unconstitutional," a 9th Circuit panel said in a 28-page ruling, because "it categorically bans some abortions before viability" and "places an undue burden on a woman's ability to obtain an abortion by requiring hospitalizations for all second-trimester abortions."

The panel found that Jennie McCormack and her attorney-physician Richard Hearn still faced the "lingering risk" of prosecution under a law which banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Therefore they could challenge the constitutionality of the law, the panel said.

In March 2013, Chief U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill found that the regulations are unconstitutional.

A federal appeals court struck down one of the nation’s toughest abortion restrictions [Act 301 of 2013, the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act] on Wednesday, agreeing with a lower court that a state law unconstitutionally burdens women by banning abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy if a doctor can detect a fetal heartbeat.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit sided with doctors who challenged the law, ruling that abortion restrictions must be based on a fetus’s ability to live outside the womb, not the presence of a fetal heartbeat, which can be detected weeks earlier.

In 2014, an Arkansas federal judge sided with Supreme Court precedent and struck down the law.

Arkansas appealed to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that the viability standard cannot be the end of the discussion when weighed against the state's interest in protecting human life.

The court did acknowledge that medical advances since Roe v. Wade - the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision holding that privacy and due-process rights extend to a woman's decision to have an abortion - have moved fetus viability closer to conception, but found that "viability determination necessarily calls for a case-by-case determination and changes over time based on medical advancements" and that legislatures are better suited to make judgments in this area.

The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit challenging Act 301 on behalf of two Little Rock doctors who perform abortions [Dr. Louis Jerry Edwards and Dr. Tom Tvedten].

Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, who sponsored the legislation that became Act 301, said he was disappointed with the ruling but happy that “every single woman who goes to a clinic is going to have to have an ultrasound. She will have to be informed if there is the presence of a heartbeat in the womb.”

For years, the [Supreme Court] justices have steered clear of most abortion cases. A decision to turn down the latest appeals, from Mississippi and North Carolina, would be a victory for abortion rights advocates. . . .

At the Supreme Court, justices could announce as soon as Monday whether they will hear the Mississippi case. A decision on whether to hear North Carolina's appeal should come by mid-June.

Attorneys for the states that have passed new restrictions say the court should clarify the law governing abortions. In 1992, in its last sweeping abortion ruling, the high court said states may regulate the procedures so long as their rules do not put an “undue burden” on women seeking to end a pregnancy.

Lawyers for Mississippi called that a “vague and amorphous standard” which has not provided “meaningful guidance” to lawmakers or judges.

The percentage of Americans who say they would only vote for a candidate who shares their views on abortion has been edging up over the past seven years. The 21% who currently say this is, by one percentage point, the highest Gallup has found in its 19-year history of asking the question. The percentage of Americans who do not see abortion as a major issue in their voting decision has declined over the same period, and is now at 27%. Most of the rest (46%) say that abortion is one of many important factors they will take into account.

The recent uptick in the importance Americans place on where candidates stand on abortion comes as many states have enacted new or increased abortion restrictions. State lawmakers have passed more than 200 regulations on abortion since 2010, after Republicans gained control of many state legislatures. Republicans in Congress are currently advocating a federal bill banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, although President Barack Obama is unlikely to sign it.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Gay Agenda advocates who set out to persuade 12,000 Californians to favor same-sex "marriage" via face-to-face canvassing now admit that a study proving their effectiveness was bogus, and have asked the journal Science to retract its publication of the highly touted, but fraudulent propaganda.

"To encourage participation in the survey, respondents were claimed to have been given cash payments to enroll, to refer family and friends, and to complete multiple surveys."-- Marcia McNutt, Science editor-in-chief

Following weeks of academic scrutiny, Science magazine is retracting an article it published five months ago on a study that claimed people’s minds can be changed about same-sex marriage after a brief conversation with someone who is gay.

Science said that the attorney for Michael LaCour, the UCLA graduate student who was the paper’s lead author, told the publication that he made false claims about the study, including misrepresenting survey incentives and sponsors.

Columbia political science professor Donald Green, who was the other author of the study, has already published his own retraction of the article.

The study, published by the journal Science in December, came under question this month when a pair of graduate students trying to follow up on the work found evidence that the data had been misrepresented.

The study’s senior author, Donald P. Green, a prominent political scientist at Columbia University, asked that the study be retracted last week, after his co-author, Michael J. LaCour, a graduate student in political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, declined to furnish the raw data he had used to reach his conclusions.

The students who flagged possible problems with the research, Joshua Kalla and David Broockman, then at the University of California, Berkeley, had tried to conduct their own version of the original study.

They asked canvassers with a personal stake in a contentious gay rights issue to try to sway voters’ opinions. But the researchers could not get the same level of participation from voters that Mr. LaCour had reported.

The [Science] article received widespread news coverage from most major outlets, including The Associated Press, The New York Times and the Washington Post.

The article detailed a study which concluded that openly gay canvassers were far more effective than straight canvassers in shifting voters’ views toward support for same-sex marriage.

The study claimed that opinion changes produced by the straight canvassers tended to fade within a few weeks and those voters reverted to their previous, less favorable views of same-sex marriage. It said that the changes in viewpoints produced by the gay canvassers persisted nine months later.

As national mentoring coordinator at the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Leadership Lab, [Laura Gardiner] and her colleagues had toiled to train 1,000 volunteers who had fanned out across Los Angeles and beyond, lobbying voters in precincts that had cast ballots against gay rights [in the 2008 Proposition 8 referendum].

The idea was to push back against prejudice, house by house — and over the years, the group's internal evaluations indicated, the Leadership Lab had gotten quite good at changing voter minds.

The study had excited readers well beyond Gardiner's circle for its surprising conclusion that a single doorstep chat could prompt a skeptic to embrace marriage equality. It even reported a “spillover” effect that extended to household members who didn't talk to canvassers.

Although the findings contradicted a body of research that said firmly held opinions weren't easily swayed by lobbying and political advertising, they seemed to confirm an idea people were happy to embrace — that honest conversation and open minds could bring people together.

The [now-fraudulent] study results purported to show that after speaking with canvassers, people were more inclined to support same-sex marriage, an increase from 39% to 47%. One year later, support for gay marriage was 14 percentage points higher among people who were lobbied by a gay person and 3 percentage points higher among those who were canvassed by a straight person, the study said.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Health officials in the U.S. and worldwide are reporting that a sudden rapid spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), particularly among young adults, is the result of an expansion of the "hook-up culture" enabled by electronic social media. First it was the explosion of pornography, and now it's Internet-facilitated anonymous sexcapades that spread HIV among homosexual men, as well as other STDs among straight men and women — diseases that used to be under control.

“Before [Internet-based social media], if you were interested in sexual activity outside of marriage, there was a fear factor if you went somewhere you’d be seen. [But now], you click a few buttons and meet at a hotel.”-- Lynn Beltran, Epidemiologist, Salt Lake County STD clinic

Between 2013 and 2014, cases of syphilis grew by 79%. HIV infections were up 33% and gonorrhea cases increased by 30%. STD cases for young adults are growing at a faster rate than the rest of the population.

Rhode Island says the recent uptick in STD cases follows a national trend. The state's health department blamed "high-risk behaviors that have become more common in recent years," including "using social media to arrange casual and often anonymous sexual encounters."

A 2013 New York University study found that Craigslist was responsible for a 16% increase in HIV cases between 1999 and 2008 across 33 states. Grinder, a hookup app for gay men, was associated with more than half of all syphilis cases in New Zealand in 2012, according to Christchurch Sexual Health Clinic.

“The recent uptick in STDs in Rhode Island follows a national trend,” HEALTH said in a press release. “The increase has been attributed to better testing by (health care) providers and to high-risk behaviors that have become more common in recent years … (including) using social media to arrange casual and often anonymous sexual encounters.”

In the report, the [Rhode Island health] department stated that they believe this is reflective of a national trend. They also warned that even though infection rates are up across the board, new cases of HIV and syphilis continue to increase among gay and bisexual men at a faster rate than in other parts of the population.

One of the contributing factors in this increase, cited by Dr. Rosemary Gillespie, chief executive at the UK-based Terrence Higgins Trust, is the rise in dating app usage (like Tinder and Grindr) over the past five years and users engaging in casual and often unsafe sex, saying “Dating apps have given people more opportunities to meet potential partners than ever before, and we are currently looking at their impact on gay men’s sexual health.”

Thanks, in part, to a growing use of “hookup” apps, doctors say they have seen rates of sexually transmitted diseases skyrocket over the past couple years.

Apps like Tinder, Down and Grindr could be partly responsible for gonorrhea rates in Utah being up in women more than 700 percent, they use as an example.

The numbers don’t lie, and gonorrhea rates jumped nearly 400 percent from 2011-2014. Men have seen a 300 percent increase, while rates among women have surged an incredible 714 percent.

The state [of Utah] is now rushing to stop this alarming trend by bumping up its annual conference scheduled for the fall and meeting with doctors from across the state in mid-May to brainstorm solutions.

New cases of AIDS and HIV continued to increase faster among gay and bisexual men than in any of the other populations, while infection rates of all STDs continued to impact blacks and Hispanics more than others.

A study conducted by the Los Angeles LGBT Center revealed that those who participated in casual sex through online dating apps had a 37 percent greater incidence of getting STDs compared to those who met their partners in a bar or the gym.

While the Alachua County Health Department does not track the number of patients who have received an STD after meeting someone online, their records show that back in 2012—before these apps became mainstream—there were more than 950 cases of STDs from January to May. For the same period in 2015, the numbers increased by about 5 percent.

"When you look at any situation, regardless of where you meet someone, there are ways to protect yourself. Abstinence is the 100 percent way to prevent the spread of STDs. You want monogamous relationships, you want to get tested with your partners before engaging in sexual activity," said Larissa Cantlin-Plemons, Alachua County Health Department STD Program Manager.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Much to the chagrin of the mainstream media that consider Francis I their liberal "pet pope," the Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a champion of Cuban diplomatic restoration and global warming, characterized the successful Irish same-sex "marriage" referendum as "a defeat for humanity." Parolin admitted that the Church has lost its authority with young adults in that country of 88% Catholics.

"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is [then] of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet."-- Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:13 & Luke 14:35 ESV)

In comments to reporters Tuesday evening, Parolin referred to remarks by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, that the results showed the church needed to do a "reality check" since it clearly wasn't reaching young people with its message.

The Catholic Church in Ireland has lost much of its moral authority following widespread sex abuse scandals and a general secularization of society. Martin himself called the vote part of a "social revolution" that required the church to look at whether it had "drifted completely away from young people."

Pope Francis hasn't commented directly on the Irish results, but on Wednesday he stressed traditional church teaching on marriage as being between man and woman. Francis has dedicated his weekly general audience catechism lessons to family issues, so Wednesday's remarks about the importance of the period of engagement before a marriage were perfectly in line with the themes he has been stressing for months.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, told reporters he was “deeply saddened” by the outcome of the Friday referendum in Ireland, in which many voters defied the Roman Catholic Church by favoring marriage for same-sex couples.

"The church must take account of this reality, but in the sense that it must strengthen its commitment to evangelization,” Parolin was quoted as saying by Italian wire agency Ansa. “I think that you cannot just talk of a defeat for Christian principles, but of a defeat for humanity."

Church officials often see any moves to legitimize gay unions as automatically weakening of the status of the traditional family. The Vatican views homosexual acts as unnatural.

. . . the Irish vote has galvanized the Italian government, led by prime minister Matteo Renzi, to push ahead with its own planned legislation on civil unions, which would allow couples of the same sex to be recognized by law.

The remarks by the Vatican’s top diplomat, who is seen as second only to the pope in the church’s hierarchy, represent the most damning assessment of the Irish vote by a senior church official to date.

Ireland became the first country to legalise gay marriage by popular vote after a referendum found that 62% of voters were in favour of changing the constitution to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.

While the results were celebrated by advocates of gay rights in Ireland and around the world, it was also seen as a stark symbol of how wide the chasm has grown between young people in what has traditionally been a staunchly Catholic country and the church itself, which says that homosexual acts are a sin and vehemently opposes gay marriage.

Parolin’s comments are sure to revive the debate about the church’s attitude to gay rights and equality under the papacy of Pope Francis, who once famously said “who am I to judge?” when asked about the existence of a “gay lobby” within the Vatican. That remark spurred hope among progressive Catholics that the church was entering a new era of tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality.

Take a look at this list of countries: Belgium, Canada, Spain, Argentina, Portugal, Brazil, France, Uruguay, Luxembourg and Ireland. . . . in all of them, the Roman Catholic Church has more adherents, at least nominally, than any other religious denomination does.

And all of them belong to the vanguard of 20 nations that have decided to make same-sex marriage legal.

. . . But in falling out of line with the Vatican, Irish people are actually falling in line with their Catholic counterparts in other Western countries, including the United States.

They aren’t sloughing off their Catholicism — not exactly, not entirely. An overwhelming majority of them still identify as Catholic. But they’re incorporating religion into their lives in a manner less rooted in Rome.

Catholics in the United States appear to be more, not less, progressive about gay rights than Americans in general are.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Fallan Kurek, 21, of Tamworth, Staffordshire (England) suffered a blood clot as a confirmed result of taking birth control pills for 25 consecutive days, as prescribed; she died after three days of intensive care. The multitude of deadly side effects of contraceptives are well documented, yet unknown to most users.

"We felt angry when they first mentioned it could be the pill. . . . I couldn't believe nobody had said the pill could do this. It should say it on the pack and the label that they can kill."-- Julia Kurek, mother

[Kurek] was taken to Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, where doctors said the pill was the probable cause of the blood clot on her lung.

A brain scan revealed there was no activity because of oxygen starvation and after three days in intensive care, her parents [Julia and Brian Kurek] made the decision to turn off her life support on 14 May.

The link between combined contraceptives and blood clots has been known for several decades and is closely monitored by international regulators.

The risk of blood clots varies depending on the type of hormone pills contain, ranging from five to 12 cases of blood clots per 10,000 women who use them for a year.

The family wants to raise awareness of the potential side effects, he said, adding: “We can’t bring her back, all we can do is maybe save another life.”

. . . Her worried father Brian, 52, took her to Sir John Peel Hospital in Tamworth for a check-up where she was given an electrocardiogram (ECG) but four days later she began getting breathless again and collapsed on the stairs of her home . . . earlier this month after vomiting and turning blue as she struggled to breathe.

Paramedics arrived and began carrying out tests on the still conscious Miss Kurek, but within minutes they switched to emergency CPR when she stopped breathing.

She was rushed to Good Hope Hospital's intensive care unit, where she was put on a ventilator and emergency scans on her head and chest took place.

The scan revealed she had a large clot on her lung, causing the right side of her heart to become inflamed, and that she was now clinically brain dead.

Monday, May 25, 2015

A new public opinion poll shows that 94% of Americans believe that humans have a responsibility to consider animals worthy of protection from harm, while one-third of respondents said that "animals deserve the exact same right as people" — an increase over seven years ago.

Earlier this year Pew found that Americans were closely divided on animal research, with 50% opposed to animal testing and 47% in its favor; Pew also found that 89% of scientists supported animal research.

But Americans also remain among the largest consumers of meat in the world, with only 5% of the population identifying as a vegetarian and 2% as vegan. A 2014 study found that 84% of American vegetarians and vegans eventually return to eating meat.

The US and Europe have also gradually changed their approaches to animal research. The EU banned cosmetics with animal-tested ingredients in 2013, and the US suspended medical research on chimpanzees in 2011 and began retiring the animals two years later. In the past two years, Congress has also initiated reviews of the treatment of animals in federal research programs, namely in agricultural programs found to keep livestock in dire conditions and to pose likely health risks to human consumers.

Across all demographic groups, an increasing fraction of people support equal rights for animals, although women were more likely than men to have this view, the poll found. About 42 percent of the women polled supported full animal equality in 2015, compared with 22 percent of men. However, the percentage of men and women who support this view has increased by about the same amount since 2008 — from 35 percent to 42 percent for women, and 14 percent to 22 percent for men.

In addition, Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents were more likely than their Republican counterparts to support complete animal equality. About 39 percent of liberal-leaning people supported that view this year, compared with 23 percent of conservative-leaning people. But the number of both Democrats and Republicans who support animal equality has increased since the last poll, according to Gallup.

Meanwhile, views on the treatment of marine or farm animals may have been influenced by popular documentaries such as "Blackfish" and "Food, Inc.," which sought to expose truths about the treatment of whales at SeaWorld and of farm animals raised for consumption, respectively.

The percentage of Americans who support the idea that animals' rights should be equal to those of humans increased across all major U.S. demographic groups. . . . There continues to be little difference between younger and older Americans.

To further discern Americans' feelings about animal rights, for the first time, Gallup asked Americans about their level of concern for the treatment of animals in various settings. The percentage saying they are "very" concerned ranges from 33% for animals used in research to 21% for animals in the zoo. When combined with those "somewhat" concerned about each, Americans are most concerned about animals in the circus, animals used in competitive animal sports or contests and animals used in research, with just over two-thirds expressing concern about each. They are least concerned about the treatment of household pets, with 46% saying they are very or somewhat concerned.

And despite increasing attention focused on the treatment of chickens, cows and other animals mainly used for human food -- as exposed in the 2008 documentary Food, Inc. -- Americans show relatively less concern for how these animals are treated, with 54% at least somewhat concerned, including 26% very concerned.

Walmart, the nation’s largest grocery retailer, said on Friday that it would ask its meat, seafood, poultry, deli and egg suppliers to adopt animal welfare standards that include sufficient space and easy access to food and water.

The company also said it would ask its suppliers to report to it annually on their use of antibiotics, and asked them to limit treatment with antibiotics to animals that are sick.

Over the last several years, dozens of companies have announced commitments to better animal welfare and to eliminating the use of human antibiotics from animal husbandry. McDonald’s won applause when it announced in March that it would begin using meat from chickens that are not raised with antibiotics important to human medicine, and a month later, one of its major chicken suppliers, Tyson Foods, said it would stop using such drugs in poultry production by 2017.

The guidelines also aim to get suppliers to stop using pig gestation crates and other housing that doesn't give animals enough space. They're also being asked to avoid painful procedures like de-horning or castration without proper painkillers.

Other major companies, including McDonald's Corp., Nestle and Starbucks Corp., have already pledged to reduce or eliminate the use of gestation crates for pregnant sows and otherwise improve animal treatment. But activists hailed Wal-Mart's steps and said its guidelines would be one of the most sweeping and could become the blueprint for the food industry.

Wal-Mart said its own research showed 77 percent of its shoppers said they will increase their trust and 66 percent will increase their likelihood to shop at a retailer that improves the treatment of livestock.

Wal-Mart said it has adopted the "five freedoms" outlined by the World Organization for Animal Health to guide its approach to animal welfare. They include freedom from pain and injury and freedom to express normal behavior.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Just as U.S. District Court of South Carolina Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks ruled, much to the chagrin of the American Humanist Association (AHA), that Greenville County, South Carolina School District cannot muzzle students' prayers at commencement ceremonies, graduating senior Christian Crawford spontaneously led faculty, students and parents in prayer as a medical emergency was playing out in the midst of a graduation ceremony in Alabama.

"Everybody can I have your attention real quick? We don't know what's going on, but we will pray. We know that prayer is power, and that God is able. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for this day, Lord. We pray right now that whatever is going on, you will fix it, God. We pray that you will heal it, God. We pray that you will redeem it, God. We pray that you will deliver it, God. Because we know that you are a God who knows how to make a way. And in the name of Jesus we declare and decree in the name of Jesus that whatever is going on shall be fixed, because you are a God who is a fixer. You are a God who is a healer. Jehovah God, Jehovah-jireh, Jehovah-nissi, Jehovah-shiloh. Fix it, Jesus. In Jesus' name, Amen."-- Christian Crawford, graduating senior of Clay-Chalkville High School, in Pinson, Alabama

The [AHA] lawsuit claims the student’s parents are non-theists who felt “alienated and stigmatized” by the [Mountain View Elementary School in Taylors, SC] endorsement of Christianity during their daughter’s graduation held at the chapel of North Greenville University.

The suit alleges such “excessive entanglement with religion” is in violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause and seeks a permanent injunction to enjoin prayer at any future school-sponsored event, including graduation ceremonies.

“Prohibiting such independent student speech would go beyond showing neutrality toward religion but instead demonstrate an impermissible hostility toward religion,” the school district said in court filings.

[Judge] Hendricks agreed to allow spontaneous prayer, calling it the “cultural residue” left over from the historical inclusion of religious speech at graduations.

On Thursday night at Cougar stadium,while school administrators and medical personnel were helping a young woman in the crowd suffering a seizure, Christian Crawford got a nudge from faculty member Shannon Petty.

"She asked me, 'could I pray?"

"A lot of times you may feel nervous as a principal when a student steps to the mic impromptu like that," said [Principal Michael] Lee. "But when I saw it was Christian, I knew there was nothing to be concerned about. If I had 1,400 Christian Crawford's walking the hall, this would be a better place."

The video has been shared over 15,000 times on Facebook and is reaching national news outlets. Crawford credits his family for instilling strength in faith and character. He is the senior class president and wants a career in politics.

“It only takes one person,” said Crawford. “One person stands up and says ‘okay, I’m going to stand for the word of God, regardless of what people say.’ It’s important that we stand on the word of God.”

After cheers fell from the grandstands, the senior class president took his seat with the belief that the moment had passed.

“After I finished praying, that was it, I knew God was going to do his job,” said Crawford. “We had 1,000 plus people there, so I know he heard our prayer, and I got an update on the (victim) and she’s doing fine.”

“I cannot take any credit for what God is doing through me for His glory,” said Crawford.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Lawyers representing Angelique Clark, a sophomore at West Career and Technical Academy, are demanding that the Clark County (Nevada) School District approve her request to form a local chapter of Students For Life America. School Vice Principal Allan Yee said the club would reflect poorly on the school in local media and that students are unqualified to speak on abortion issues.

The nonprofit Thomas More Society legal group said in a letter . . . [that] Clark applied to start a Students for Life club on campus but was told by the vice principal that the topic was controversial, would attract negative media attention and the club's intent wasn't inclusive enough.

The Thomas More Society said in its letter that the school has a Bible club and gay-straight alliance club on campus.

The Clark County School District said in a statement it's reviewing the facts and hadn't made a final decision.

Clark said in a news release she didn’t hear back from school officials until two months later when a vice principal said her application had been denied.

Vice Principal Allan Yee told her the topic was “controversial,” pro-choice supporters would feel left out and “there were others ‘more qualified’ to speak on the issue than a high school sophomore.”

The demand letter was addressed to high school Principal Amy Dockter-Rozar and Clark County School District Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky. It alleges Clark’s First Amendment rights and the federal Equal Access Act of 1984, which affects extracurricular clubs, were violated.

After lawyers demanded Thursday that West Career and Technical Academy reverse its decision to prevent sophomore Angelique Clark from starting an anti-abortion student club, district officials released a statement saying the club did not have a faculty adviser willing to sponsor the club. In CCSD schools, student clubs need a teacher to serve as an adviser before they are allowed to operate.

A document released by Students for Life of America, the national group that has taken up Clark's cause, appears to show Angelique had a teacher on board. Signatures on her application form dated Dec. 17, 2014, show that science teacher Sandy Roden had volunteered to be the adviser.

The letter written by lawyers from the nonprofit Thomas More Society gave the district until June 1 to respond. The lawyers haven't said whether they will pursue legal action if the district does not reverse the school's decision.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Representing parents Tim and Kate Frasier, Liberty Institute has given Academica Nevada, manager of the Somerset Academy charter school in North Las Vegas, ten days to apologize for the unconstitutional actions of Miss Jardine, a teacher at Somerset's Losee campus, barring their sixth-grade daughter from quoting a Bible verse in an assignment.

The Fraisers said their daughter Mackenzie was told she couldn't use the Bible verse John 3:16 for a technology class assignment called "All About Me" that involved creating a PowerPoint presentation and including an inspirational saying on a slide.

[Assistant Principal Jenyan] Martinez said based on [U.S. Department of Education] directives, a student's right to free religious expression didn't include "the right to have a captive audience listen or compel other students to participate."

Jeremy Dys, senior counsel with the Liberty Institute, disagreed, citing the federal agency's guidelines on religious expression in class assignments that say students are free to express their beliefs "in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination."

A statement sent by the [school's] legal manager Colin Bringhurst said Somerset Academy would investigate the circumstances of the complaint and respond to Liberty Institute's letter once the investigation was complete. The letter demands an apology within 10 days.

The little girl is proud of her Christian faith and her father, Tim Frasier, is a pastor at Grace Point Church, a nondenominational Christian Church. She says it made sense to her to include a quote about God's love for the world in a presentation about herself.

Fraiser said he was shocked when his daughter told him she shouldn't because she's not allowed to talk about God at school. He emailed the school to find out why his daughter was instructed she wasn't allowed to use “Biblical sayings” in assignments.

“Can you please explain if this is true? Perhaps, she misunderstood you? Since I am certain you understand that this clearly infringes on my daughters/your students right to freedom of speech, I want to make sure we understand your instructions,” he wrote on April 29.

Two days later he received a response from Assistant Principal Jenyan Martinez.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Homosexuals Norman MacArthur and Bill Novak, both in their 70s, became father and son in 2000 when Novak adopted MacArthur for estate planning purposes, but now that "gay marriage" is legal in their state of residence, they will now become "husband and husband."

“Not only does it pave the way for this couple to obtain a marriage license, it is an important precedent for others who may be in the same position.”-- Attorney Clemons, Richter & Reiss

The same-sex couple, who have been together for more than 50 years, registered as domestic partners in New York City in 1994. After moving to Bucks County, they learned that Pennsylvania law does not recognize domestic partners and prohibits same sex marriages.

They were advised by a lawyer that the only avenue to becoming legally related was through adoption. “It was the only legal method we could use in Pennsylvania to give underpinning to our relationship,” MacArthur said.

The pair’s Petition to Vacate Adoption Decree was granted on May 14, allowing them to marry. This is the first case in Pennsylvania history seeking to vacate an adoption to allow a same sex couple to marry, their lawyer Terry Clemons said.

Clemons said the approach of using adoption to gain rights was not uncommon around the turn of the century as same-sex couples were navigating estate planning and access to medical care.

When the United States District Court declared unconstitutional Pennsylvania’s marriage laws prohibiting same-sex marriage unconstitutional in 2014, Novak and MacArthur wanted to tie the knot in marriage, but their earlier legal gambit now became an obstacle. Pennsylvania law doesn’t permit marriage between parents and children.

So, a week ago, the father and son’s Petition to Vacate Adoption Decree was approved, and the pair simply became two single men now allowed to marry.

“We are ecstatic beyond belief,” MacArthur said. “I feel an enormous sense of not only relief but freedom that we can finally do something in Pennsylvania that I’ve been dreaming of for years.”

The pair has been given a marriage license and is planning a summer wedding.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Irate parents in Orange County, North Carolina stormed a school district meeting to protest actions of third grade teacher Omar Currie, 25, who conspired with Meg Goodhand, assistant principal at Efland-Cheeks Elementary School — both of whom are openly homosexual Gay Agenda activists — to teach deviant sexuality to students, having contrived a bogus bullying incident as an excuse for the indoctrination session.

"These are my children. Who gives you the right to tell me what they can listen to and what they can hear in their school? As a matter of fact, that is bullying me."-- Rodney Davis, parent"[You're] infiltrating young minds, indoctrinating children into a gay agenda and actively promoting homosexuality to steer our children in that direction."-- Lisa Baptist, parent

Dozens of community members converged on Efland-Cheeks Elementary School Friday evening to sound off on a controversial children's book read in the classroom. Third graders were read a book that addresses homosexuality.

The public forum lasted almost two hours, and it was very explosive. One parent was kicked out for being disruptive.

A few weeks ago, third grade teacher Omar Currie brought the book in to school. The book "King and King" is about a prince who goes against his mother's wishes and marries a man.

Currie is considering resigning from the school following the book backlash. He told ABC11 he will make a decision at the end of the school year.

. . . after parents complained, Currie said he was told he should have followed a controversial topics policy that required him to notify parents he planned to read the book, tell them what it was about and allow them to remove their children from the reading.

[That day, Currie had] called the media center about 10:30 a.m. [requesting the homosexual indoctrination book]. The center did not have the book but referred him to Assistant Principal Meg Goodhand, who gave him the book, Currie said. He read it during a read-aloud period from 11:40 a.m. to noon.

At 7:15 a.m. the next day, Currie said, Principal Kiley Brown said he should have notified parents.

Currie, who is gay, said a man holding a sign picketed on the road outside the school and a petition has been circulated in the small, rural community in western Orange County.

Orange County Schools administrators upheld the use of the children's book in class after the first complaint, but they decided to hold a public meeting to address the subsequent complaints.

"The policy manual for the district stipulates that a meeting like this will occur. Also, it's important that stakeholders have an opportunity to have their voices heard in the educational program," school district spokesman Seth Stephens said.

The school district brought in extra Orange County deputies to keep a lid on tensions at the meeting.

Meg Goodhand is currently an assistant principal at Efland-Cheeks Elementary in Orange County. Meg’s recent studies focused on the barriers presented by the heteronormative culture of schools for children that are gender diverse and/or LGBTQ. She asserts social activists must focus on the elementary school culture to begin to confront heterosexism and homophobia at this early and crucial period of development. Meg ‘s research shares a perspective that through transformative learning opportunities, educators can reframe their attitudes, beliefs and knowledge about gender nonconformity, the LGBTQ community and the heteronormative culture within schools and society. Ideally, with this new understanding, educators as social justice leaders will be willing to disrupt the heteronormative culture of a classroom and their schools.

Currently Meg serves on the board of Safe Schools NC. Safe Schools NC is a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to creating a safe and positive environment for all students and educators in North Carolina, with an emphasis on actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.

As the LGBT in The South bio notes, Goodhand serves on the board of ‘Safe Schools NC‘ as a Board member at Large. So does Omar Currie.

. . . On April 17th and 18th, LGBT in The South held a conference in Asheville, NC.

Scrolling down the list of events and presentations, we find Ms. Goodhand and Mr. Currie representing Safe Schools NC in a presentation titled, The Past, Present, and Future of LGBTQ Safe Spaces In Southern Schools.

. . . This conference and presentation took place immediately preceding the so far unsubstantiated claim of ‘bullying’ and subsequent reading of King and King.